Oh, how I love the future. How else would I be able to relive my past?

Quisp was my favorite cereal when I was a kid. It tastes like Cap’n Crunch, but doesn’t recreate the Battle of Hastings on the roof of your mouth. Years ago, when The Little Astronomer was very Little, we rediscovered Quisp at one of those box stores and I was able to convince her of its superiority to modern (that is, "stupid") cereals. But when we moved from Maryland, that was that. California is a vast wasteland of cereals. Hope was renewed when we moved to Boulder, as I heard that some Albertsons stores in the Denver area carry it. But they won’t return my calls, and the Quisp website is no help.

So. The other day I was researching something, and stumbled on the El Dorado of cereals on Amazon.com. Oh frabjous day! With free shipping (Amazon Prime, baby!) it doesn’t cost any more than buying other cereals at the store.

I hope you’ll pardon me now. I have something I must attend too. You can ignore the loud crunching sound.

We never got Quisp, but we did on special occasion get the Battle of Hastings brand. It was a badge of honor feeling the torn skin in the roof of your mouth after that first breakfast (which ALWAYS consisted of 2 bowls). Day 2 (if there was any BoHbrand left), we’d go to town. By then, though, the mouth had toughened up – no battle.

Huh – I never heard of ‘quisps’. I just stick to good old fashioned horse food with cow juice; cheap and good for the kids as well as the oldies. Of course if you buy something like Uncle Toby’s “Quaker” brand horse food you’re paying about 400% of the retail price of good quality horse food; I look for good quality products without the iPriceTag.

Off-topic, but I don’t know your email. Break out your “Doomed” sign again. This time for Turkey. I’d like to know if the editor was removed from her post because of the article (as is implied) or because of a past history of other things.

I assume most of those commenting here are adults… can you honestly stand those super-sweet kids cereals any more? I’m quite serious here; I recognize most of the brands mentioned in the comments (even nerds, though I never actually ate that brand), but I simply couldn’t eat them after middle school. I look back at the cereals with nostalgia, but I can’t stand them anymore. I’m curious if others feel the same, or if most adults are still into “Calvin’s Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs.”

“… can you honestly stand those super-sweet kids cereals any more? I’m quite serious here; I recognize most of the brands mentioned in the comments (even nerds, though I never actually ate that brand), but I simply couldn’t eat them after middle school.”

Neither Krinkle, nor Roman Meal were sugary. Krinkle looked like little pieces of shredded dark-brown paper. I have no clue what it was made of, but it tasted great with a spoonfull of the sweet stuff on it.

Googling Krinkle cereal only hits on a 1950’s sugar coated Rice-Krispies type cereal. Not what I remember. Maybe I’m misremembering the name. Heck, they stopped making it when I was about 8. Roman Meal is still available though. I guess they just don’t carry it in my area anymore.

BTW, isn’t the character on the box actually one of Jay Ward’s moonmen (Gidsney or Floyd)?

Ward and Bill Scott created the Quisp and Quake branding in 1965. Quisp bears a very close resemblance to Gidney and Gloyd, the moonmen, from the earlier Bullwinkle show. Quake looks suspiciously like Buzz Lightyear, minus the Snoopy helmet.

Saturday morning: Quisp cereal (two bowls), two hours of Looney Tunes, followed by Johnny Quest, and Fat Albert. Football game around noon, and back home for Spaghettios with meatballs. Good times, good times…

Im 45, and still enjoy those sugary cereals with my 8 year old son. Its the only way I can get enough energy to keep up with him!

“I assume most of those commenting here are adults… can you honestly stand those super-sweet kids cereals any more?”

I’m 30 and still love them. I don’t believe I’ve ever had my tastes change to preclude enjoying something, they just get broader with age. Mind you, I don’t eat pure sugar cereals much anymore simply because I know they’re terrible for me, but occasionally I still indulge.

If I could stand to look at milk, I believe I would still relish a good bowl of Cocoa or Fruity Pebbles now and then. Alas, ever since I was 14 or 15 something change that makes milk absolutely disgusting to me. I hate to even watch someone pour a glass, let alone drink it. Not intolerant or anything, it just grosses me out.

Hey, there’s a Big Lots not a thousand feet from where I work that sells this stuff! I’ve never tried it, but maybe I will now since I do like Cap’n Crunch and, curiously enough, don’t like having my gums all shredded and boody.

Oh, and by the way, I live in California, meaning that we can’t be a total wasteland of cereals. Just 99.999%.

Phil says, “I love teh interwebz”
Two thuings about this:
1)It’s got to be a quote for my site.
2)It sounds like Yorkshire accent. What my mum would say about ‘t’ webnet’. (My mum is from Yorkshire. Town in UK.)

“Quisp”, Phil? That ain’t no breakfast; THIS is a breakfast: Two cups of Jumbo porridge oats, two cups of whole milk, one cup of water, one cup of raisins, and simmered for 5-10 minutes until thick. Then serve immediately with demerara sugar or honey, and topped up malt whiskey or bourbon.

The propeller beanie was one of my 1st “WANTS”. My mom eventually convinced me that I couldn’t actually fly with one, so I never did send in those boxtops. Like Rodney I did notice that Quake’s helmet actually did something.

Ivan3Man knows what a real breakfast is. That’s what I have every morning…minus the alcohol…and substitute skim milk for whole milk; Age is conspiring to render my brain soft and arteries hard so I’m not about to help it along.

Keep in mind excess glucose has been linked to accelerated aging so if you’re in a hurry to grow old……

@Ivan3Man:
Two cups of Jumbo porridge oats, two cups of whole milk, one cup of water, one cup of raisins, and simmered for 5-10 minutes until thick. Then serve immediately with demerara sugar or honey, and topped up malt whiskey or bourbon.

Heck, Ivan3Man, I’d have that for dinner, too!

I wasn’t big on the sugar stuff as a kid, and I’m still not… If I want a dose of sugary cereal, I make rice crispies treats, substituting Fruity Pebbles for the crispies, and get a proper sugar high. That keeps me for a few months.

Funnily enough, the Quisp and Quake commercials WERE done by the Jay Ward company, the same studio that gave us The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and George of the Jungle.

I had the battery-powered beanie cap too… although my little sister broke mine in a jealous rage about a week after I had gotten it.

Quisp was a really great character. I’m surprised that they never tried to create Saturday morning TV shows for kids out of him, Quake, Boo Berry, Count Chocula, and Franken Berry (my personal fave) But, I suppose, that was the same period that “Hot Wheels” was pulled from the air for being a “half hour commercial for a toy line” (gasp! horror!) If only those well meaning watchdogs could see how things have devolved since then… When people for the Cartoon Network study the marketing tie ins to any show before giving it the go ahead for production.

This is awesome. Thanks to teh interwebz, an old grade school friend (whom I haven’t seen since fourth or fifth grade) got in touch with me through Facebook. One of the first things he mentioned was that I introduced him to Quisp cereal, which led me to wonder if it’s available any more.
Good timing, Phil, and thanks for the Amazon tip. I never would have thought of looking there.

Quisp was a really great character. I’m surprised that they never tried to create Saturday morning TV shows for kids out of him

But if you remember, Joe, the TV commercials back then were more like short serials (no pun intended). I recall several “plotlines” involving the Quisp guy’s various adventures, all involving a yummy bowl of cereal, of course.

And then when Quaker Oats decided to drop either Quisp or Quake, the whole “election” went on for months, with the commercials playing out each character’s campaign.

Oh, halcyon days! A far cry from “Apply it to the head! Apply it to the head! Apply it to the head!”

I played with the little red plastic flying saucer, not for minutes, but for years. It had a little grappling hook sticking out the side, and when you pressed down the little Quisp figure inside, the grappling hook shot out with rubber-band power and, in all likelihood, choked a toddler somewhere. I would have great cereal wars with all the stuff that I got from cereal boxes, and Quisp was the captain of the red and blue team (up against the villainous green/yellow team, of course). The armies all disappeared during a move, alas — I suspect mom, but she continues to deny it.

Although I didn’t eat much sugary cereal back in the day, my sister and I enjoyed the Quisp/Quake commercials immensely. We even borrowed a line from one that we use to this day to express a desire not to do something or go somewhere. Quake was going on vacation and the travel agent was trying to book him on a vacation to Planet Quisp (47 year trip one way). After hearing about all the fun to be had there (mainly eating Quisp cereal), Quake leaps into a hole he makes in the floor while announcing, “I think I’ll go to Mammoth Caves instead.”